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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29488575">burn and rave at close of day</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ASpotofBother/pseuds/ASpotofBother'>ASpotofBother</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Past Mind Control, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:49:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,232</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29488575</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ASpotofBother/pseuds/ASpotofBother</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Against all odds, the fledgling survived the hunt for the Ankaran Sarcophagus.  Now she has to survive what comes after.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>burn and rave at close of day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is pure stress writing.  Concrit welcome.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nines reclined in the beer-soaked booth, one hand wrapped around a cold bottle and the other flung across the back of the cheap vinyl seating as he watched the broadcast of LaCroix’s tower burning.  The Last Round was the fullest it’d been in months, Anarchs from across the city packed in tight to catch the show.  Damsel had given up on trying to keep any semblance of order among the crowd, only throwing out a well-placed elbow or knee if one of the younger kindred got too rowdy.  Skelter sat across the table from him, his own bottle in his hands.</p>
<p>“Now that’s a damn fine sight,” Skelter remarked as a portion of the tower collapsed in on itself.</p>
<p>Nines grunted in agreement.  “Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving asshole.”</p>
<p>On screen, he could barely make out the anchor saying no terrorist group had yet come forward to take credit for the attack.  He snorted quietly to himself.  The Camarilla must really be scrambling if they hadn’t managed to coordinate a convincing cover story yet.</p>
<p>“Didn’t expect it from a kid like her,” Skelter said, apparently following a similar train of thought.</p>
<p>“Mm.”  Nines swept his gaze across the room, searching for the dark head of hair – there.  The kid sat hunched over the bar, not talking to anyone, just staring up at the television screen with a blank expression.  She looked like the dazed fledgling he’d first clapped eyes on a month ago, not the woman who’d just jerked the city off its ass.  But if he inhaled deeply, he could smell the blood and smoke in her clothing, her hair.</p>
<p>As if sensing his scrutiny, she suddenly turned and pinned his gaze with hers.  His Beast growled, but he only grinned and raised his bottle toward her in a toast.  It wasn’t her fault the bastard that had forced the Embrace on her had been a damn warlock.</p>
<p>“Freaks me out when she does that, man,” Skelter muttered as he tipped his own bottle at her.</p>
<p>“She just blew up the capes’ tower,” Nines said, keeping his eyes on the kid as she turned back to stare at the wall-mounted screen.  “She can do all the freaky shit she wants.”</p>
<p>“Speaking of which,” Skelter said, leaning a little further across the table, “the Camarilla ain’t gonna be licking their wounds for long.  We got a game plan to keep them off-balance?”</p>
<p>Right now all Nines wanted to do was find a ghoul to give his beer to so he could indulge in a celebratory drink, but before he could address the question one of the younger Anarchs went sailing across the room to crash into a booth a few feet away.  Everything froze as all eyes turned to the kid, suddenly on her feet next to the bar, fist still clenched in the aftermath of her blood strike.</p>
<p>On the television, the news anchor announced that emergency response crews were still struggling to reach the upper floors of the crumbling tower.</p>
<p>Damsel was the first to look to him, shock already morphing to anger.  Elysium was respected in all but name in their small haven – anyone else would’ve been out on the street already, but nobody wanted to be the one to go up against the newbie who’d torn the prince’s sheriff apart.</p>
<p>“What the fuck!”</p>
<p>The kid blinked.  Lowered her fist.  Raised her head to look at him with dark eyes before uttering the first words he’d heard her speak since emerging from the burning tower: “I should go.”</p>
<p>Nines looked back at her, ignoring the younger Anarch stumbling to his feet in the periphery of his vision.  “You sure that’s what you want?”</p>
<p>A small, mirthless smile cracked the blankness of her face, but she only turned and walked toward the door, every eye in the place following her.  She paused with one hand on the flaking green paint to glance back over her shoulder at him.  “Sorry for interrupting the celebration.”  Then she was gone, the <i>click</i> of the door falling shut loud in the silence.</p>
<p>“Don’t,” Nines barked as some of the younger, dumber Anarchs leapt to their feet, expressions thunderous.  He got a few nasty looks, but no one challenged him, just slunk back to their seats with angry scowls and muttered complaints.</p>
<p>Damsel smacked one of them upside the head as she moved toward Nines’s booth.  “Watch your fuckin’ mouth,” she snarled.  Their den mother planted herself at the edge of the table and swiped the beer out of Nines’s hand.  “I knew she was still a Cammy do-gooder bitch,” she spat.  She glared at them as if daring them to say something about the edged hurt in her voice.</p>
<p>The tower sent up a sudden gout of flame as another section collapsed.  Nines tilted his head back and hid his eyes behind his cupped palm.  “Enough, Damsel.  We need to get down to business.”</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Cass stood on the Last Round’s doorstep.  Just stood.  Moving seemed like too much of an effort, and anyway, where did she have left that she could go?</p>
<p>
  <i>(She had laughed.)</i>
</p>
<p>Back home to her mother, still smelling of smoke and the men and women she’d slaughtered as she fought her way up the bastard’s tower?  Back to Sam and her friends, to twist their minds into believing she had never been gone?</p>
<p>
  <i>(“I’d’ve paid to see that.”)</i>
</p>
<p>She began to tremble.  Buried her face in her hands.</p>
<p>She’d beaten the monsters.  She was a monster herself.  Four weeks dead and her body still walked and talked and fed and <i>killed</i> –</p>
<p>“Need a ride?”</p>
<p>She jerked her head up to glare at the cabbie.  He looked back at her across the empty passenger seat, dark lenses concealing his eyes.</p>
<p>“Do you ever take those things off?”</p>
<p>No answer.  Not even a twitch of the lips to indicate he’d heard the question.  She scowled and stepped forward, opening the cab door.  He watched her climb into the back seat without comment.</p>
<p>“Where to?”</p>
<p>She fiddled with the scorched edges of her skirt, fixed her eyes on the streetlamp outside the cab’s window.  “Just drive.”</p>
<p>He did, and she sagged back in the seat, keeping her gaze on the streets and alleys flashing past.</p>
<p>
  <i>(Blood.  So much blood, staining his shirt, the knees of his slacks, accumulating in splashes and puddles on the floor.  And still he slipped, and struggled, and crawled toward her, eyes blazing with impotent fury.)</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>(And she had laughed.)</i>
</p>
<p>She shuddered and turned her face from the window.</p>
<p>“Did you get what you wanted, vampire?”</p>
<p>She grit her teeth, refused to meet the man’s hidden gaze in the rear-view mirror.  “Did you?”</p>
<p>No answer.  Again.  She worried the fabric of her skirt between her fingers and wondered where she could go.</p>
<p>Strauss might be willing to offer her sanctuary, even now, but she knew he would insist on binding her to the Pyramid in return.  At least she’d been able to rage beneath LaCroix’s Domination – she couldn’t imagine a prison where she’d be incapable of hating the jailers.</p>
<p>
  <i>(“Save your trust for those who earn it, mija.”)</i>
</p>
<p>She blinked bloody tears out of her eyes.  <i>I miss you, mami.</i></p>
<p>Beckett had warned her not to open the sarcophagus, but he was gone and she didn’t have the faintest idea how to go about tracking him down.  Yukie would have scaled the tower with her</p>
<p>
  <i>(“You go to slay your demon, yes?”)</i>
</p>
<p>but Cass had sent her away.  There was so much blood on her hands already; she wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if the hunter had been cut down carrying out her vendetta.</p>
<p>She squeezed out a broken laugh.  As if one life came even remotely close to balancing the scales.</p>
<p>
  <i>(She could have shared Beckett’s warning with him.  She could have turned and walked away.  Instead she slit his throat.  Watched him stumble and choke, pale hands stained scarlet as he tried to hold the vitae inside.  Dropped the key he wanted so desperately at the door and watched as he dragged himself on bloody hands across the polished floor.)</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>(And she had laughed.)</i>
</p>
<p>She couldn’t go back to the sad little apartment that had been her haven this last month.  It was known to the Camarilla, was the first place they would think to come looking for her.  But her knowledge of Los Angeles was confined to the areas she had visited on LaCroix’s orders and the USC campus.</p>
<p>She could crawl back to the Anarchs, pretend to care about their war in exchange for protection.  Pretend she still knew how to be a part of something bigger than her own survival.</p>
<p>
  <i>(Yukie’s eyes, dark and solemn.  “You walk a hard path, demon.”  The warmth of a living hand wrapped around hers, there and then gone again much too quickly.)</i>
</p>
<p>She was in over her head, had been since she’d opened her eyes on Nocturne’s stage.</p>
<p>She needed a person who knew things, and how to get them.</p>
<p>“Hey,” she said, turning her face toward the cab driver.</p>
<p>“Have you decided where you wish to go?” he asked, and she had to squeeze her eyes shut at the sharp sensation of déjà vu.</p>
<p>“Yeah.”</p>
<p>“Then I will drive you to your destination.”</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>She stepped out of the cab outside Mercurio’s building and tilted her head back to study what she could see of the light-polluted heavens.</p>
<p>
  <i>(Her mother’s hands, gentle and so, so patient as they adjusted the telescope.  “There.  See them, baby?  Those are the stars you’re named after.”)</i>
</p>
<p>She swallowed.  Made herself close the car door.  Turned toward the driver.  “How much?”</p>
<p>“No charge.”  She could feel the weight of his unseen gaze, wondered if he found her lacking.  Wondered why she should care.  “Farewell, vampire.”</p>
<p>She stood and watched until his taillights disappeared around the far corner.  <i>Adiós, vampiro.</i></p>
<p>She could hear the scuffle as soon as she opened the door to the front hall.  She tensed, vitae singing as she called on her Auspex.  In Mercurio’s apartment: one ghoul, one kindred, sharp distress and feral excitement struggling against one another in near total silence.  She drew the Colt from its makeshift sling at the small of her back and ran for the door.</p>
<p>The combatants didn’t notice her as she slipped into the room, too focused on each other.  A quick glance around revealed one kindred staked behind the couch.  Mercurio had been backed against the wall, was struggling to keep a second kindred from sinking her fangs into his neck with one hand.  The angle at which his other arm hung was <i>off</i>, somehow, and she suspected it had been broken.  The kindred he was grappling with laughed and Cass saw red.</p>
<p>Ghouls might be stronger than kine, but they were no match for a kindred’s strength.  The woman was tormenting him for the thrill of it, a predator playing with her prey.</p>
<p>The kindred twitched, then yelped, staggering away from the ghoul as the blood boiled in her veins.  She dropped to her knees, bent double until her face almost touched the floor.  Her rolling eyes found Cass.  “Please,” she whimpered, blood erupting from her mouth and dribbling down her chin.  “Please...”</p>
<p>Cass wanted to hold her there until her atrophied organs liquefied, until she choked and expired on a river of her own blood.  She dispelled her Thaumaturgy, leaving the other kindred gaping like a fish against the carpet.  “Get out.”  The woman began to push herself upright on shaking arms.  “Now!” Cass snapped.  The woman scrambled to her feet and rushed for the door, leaving her friend (if indeed the staked kindred was her friend) behind.</p>
<p>
  <i>(“Too many fools think they can solve their problems with violence.  Be <b>smarter</b>, Cassie.  Use that clever brain of yours.”)</i>
</p>
<p>One month.  Four weeks.  All it had taken to transform her into the sort of person whose first instinct was to use violence instead of her voice.  <i>I’ve killed so many people, mami.</i></p>
<p>
  <i>(She’d slit a man’s throat.  Watched him slip and choke on his own blood.  And she had – )</i>
</p>
<p>Mercurio cleared his throat, and she raised her eyes from the pool of blood on the carpet to study him.  His aura was white noise slicked over with residual fear.  Despite everything, it hurt to think that that fear might be directed at her.  He held his injured arm stiffly at his side; she indicated it with a jerk of her chin.</p>
<p>“Broken?”</p>
<p>He shifted, reaching toward it self-consciously.  The wariness in his aura increased.  Definitely directed at her, then.  “Feels like it,” he said.</p>
<p>She nodded, let her gaze stray to the window over his right shoulder.  “You need blood to heal it?”  A riotous burst of confused colors.  She screwed her eyes shut and let her Auspex drop. </p>
<p>“You offering?”</p>
<p>She opened her eyes and looked at him.  His face was pinched with pain; she wondered suddenly if he was nursing other injuries she couldn’t see, wondered how many kindred had decided to drop by to try and make sport of the dead prince’s ghoul –</p>
<p>“You still hate L.A.?” she asked.</p>
<p>His laugh was a confused, disbelieving bark.  “You serious?  You just killed the boss, now you want me to help you skip town?”</p>
<p>“You have a better offer on the line?”  She was still holding the Colt.  She returned it to its sling, her eyes never leaving his.  “How long until you’re supposed to get your next fix?”  He flinched; she tried not to feel like a piece of shit for kicking him while he was down.  “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.  “I need your help.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, well helping you has already proven to be kinda detrimental to my health,” he pointed out sourly.</p>
<p>One of the few benefits of being a corpse was that she no longer flushed with shame.  “I know.”</p>
<p>He broke eye contact to tear his good hand through his hair.  “If I say no?”</p>
<p>She shrugged.  Tried for a smile but gave up halfway through the attempt.  “Then I’ll leave.  And we’ll probably both die.”</p>
<p>He met her gaze again, considering.  Before either of them could speak, someone knocked at the door.</p>
<p>Immediately, the Colt was in her hand.  Auspex.  One human, warm colors shot through with apprehension.  She motioned for Mercurio to remain silent before she spied through the peephole.</p>
<p>The tension left her body all at once.  She had to fumble with the handle before getting the door open.  “Yukie?”</p>
<p>“Hello, demon.”  A small, uncertain smile.  “You didn’t come back.”</p>
<p><i>Did she want me to?</i>  It was a dangerous thought.  Even more so was how desperately she wanted it to be true.</p>
<p>She realized she was trembling.  Just shaking and staring like a fool.</p>
<p>Yukie frowned, the unease in her aura swelling.  “May I come in?”</p>
<p>“Um.”</p>
<p>She remembered to look toward Mercurio for permission.  The ghoul shrugged his good shoulder.  “Yeah, sure, why not?  Seems like everybody else is,” he grumbled.</p>
<p>Yukie’s frown deepened as she looked him over.  “You are a very strange demon.”</p>
<p>“He’s from New York,” Cass said.</p>
<p>A sharp glance as Yukie tried to determine if the statement had been made in jest.  “That’s not what I meant.”</p>
<p>Cass <i>hmm-ed</i> and shuffled far enough to the side to let the hunter step across the threshold.  She closed and locked the door, tried not to sag against it as she holstered the Colt and cut her Auspex.  “I know.  He’s...”  She hesitated, looking back at Mercurio.  What <i>was</i> he?  <i>My weapons dealer?  Occasional ally?  Maybe future blood slave?</i>  She swallowed.  “He’s with me.”</p>
<p>“Hm.”  Yukie looked between them appraisingly.  “Then I will trust him.  For now.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, don’t do me any favors,” Mercurio muttered.</p>
<p>Yukie ignored him.  “Did you kill your demon?” she asked, studying Cass’s face.</p>
<p>She had to turn away from the hunter’s scrutiny.  “No, I – ”</p>
<p>
  <i>(“ – watched him choke on his own blood.”)</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>(The Anarch sitting at her elbow snickered.  “No shit?  Goddamn.  I’d’ve paid to see that.”  Laughed again.)</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>(He’d laughed.  He’d laughed and she’d laughed and she’d slit his throat and please God I don’t want to see it anymore I don’t want to be the kind of person who slits a man’s throat and <b>laughs</b> – )</i>
</p>
<p>“Shh – come sit.”</p>
<p>Cass blinked and found herself curled on the couch where Mercurio had almost bled out a lifetime ago, the ghoul hovering uncertainly as Yukie held her cold hands in her lap.</p>
<p>“Is she okay?” Mercurio asked.  “I thought only Malks were – y’know.”  He rotated a finger at his temple.  “In the head.”</p>
<p>“The demon hurt her very badly,” Yukie said, rubbing Cass’s hands gently between her own.  “She fought against his control, so he created...”  Her gaze roamed the room as she searched for the word she wanted.  “Wounds.  Deep wounds in her mind.”</p>
<p>Mercurio grimaced but remained silent.  He studied them a moment longer before he wandered over to one of the windows, twitching the curtain aside far enough to watch the street.  Yukie began to hum, the tune unfamiliar, her fingers gentle as they worked at the impossible task of chafing some warmth into Cass’s dead flesh.</p>
<p>Cass turned her hand far enough to catch the hunter’s fingers with her own.  “Sorry.  I’m okay.”  The young woman was mourning her own loss.  It wasn’t fair to make her shoulder the emotional breakdown of a walking corpse.</p>
<p>
  <i>I used to be stronger than this.  You taught me to be stronger.  I’m sorry, mami.</i>
</p>
<p>Yukie nodded.  “So you didn’t kill him, but he is dead?”</p>
<p>Mercurio tilted his head to better catch her reply.  She drew her hands back from Yukie’s grasp, tried not to mourn the loss of contact.  “Yeah.  The tower just...exploded.”</p>
<p>“I know.  I saw it on the news.”  A pause.  A hint of a smile.  “I’m glad you didn’t die.”</p>
<p>Her laugh felt almost rusted with disuse.  “Yeah.”</p>
<p>Mercurio glanced back over at them – at <i>her</i>, expression unreadable.  She tried to hold his gaze.  She did.  “Yeah, well,” he said when she turned her face away, “if we plan on keepin’ it that way we need to find someplace to lay low until we can get the hell outta Dodge.”  He frowned at Yukie.  “How’d you find us, anyway?”</p>
<p>“I’m a very good hunter.”</p>
<p>“...Right.”</p>
<p>Cass choked out another laugh at Mercurio’s expression.  It almost felt natural.  “You’re coming, then?” she asked, wiping her cheeks on the back of her hand.</p>
<p>“Not much point hangin’ around here,” he said with a shrug.  “I still got favors I can call in – how’s Vegas sound?”</p>
<p>“How about a place to spend the day?” she countered.</p>
<p>Yukie covered one of her hands with her own.  “I can help with that.”  Cass couldn’t help nudging at her hand until she could lace their fingers together.</p>
<p>“You’re comin’ with?”  She couldn’t tell if Mercurio was displeased or just confused.</p>
<p>Yukie lifted her chin.  “Someone has to make sure you remain honorable demons.”</p>
<p>“I’m not – ”  The ghoul cut himself short with a sigh, apparently deciding it wasn’t worth trying to explain.  “Name’s Mercurio,” he said instead.</p>
<p>“Ōgami Yukie desu.  You are with Cass.”</p>
<p>Mercurio glanced at the kindred leaning against the hunter’s shoulder.  “Yeah,” he muttered.  “Guess I am.”</p>
<p>“Then we will take the first steps of this journey together.”</p>
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